Portland Old Port Half Marathon Race Recap 2018: My New PR:)

(This is a brief re-write of the recap that was destroyed in the great disc-space crash of ReadWriteRun in December 2018)

Hi Friends:)

I HAVE A NEW PR!

So, as you may remember, I literally broke my leg in my first attempt at getting a sub-2 half marathon. Now, for those of you who running comes naturally to and who were able to log sub-6:30 miles back in high school…this whole saga probably makes no sense to you. But I am a non-natural athlete with some tricky health conditions so achieving a sub-2 half was a BIG goal. A BIG Goal that I worked myself into a tizzy over an ended up ignoring all kinds of important signs that were telling me STOP! SLOW DOWN! REST!

So for the last year, I’ve been kind of avoiding speed work and I’ve been super cautious about avoiding over-training. Ever since Boston, though, I’ve been itching to test my speed and strength again; albeit in a more save, moderated way.

That opportunity came when two of my friends from my Boston Marathon charity team asked if I wanted to run a half marathon in Portland, Maine with them. I love Portland so, so much, and the idea of going away for a weekend to Maine to run with some amazing ladies right after school finished for the year sounded awesome.

So we headed north. We arrived the day before the race, and did some sight seeing. Love the Portland Head Light!

Then we headed into Old Port, the historic city center, to pick up our bibs. Bib pickup went super smoothly, and then we headed to a little bistro for some amazing homemade (and gluten free) Pasta.

…and some AMAZING Beal’s Ice Cream!

After that it was a dip in the hotel jacuzzi and early to bed.

The next morning we headed out back to Old Port and crowded with a bunch of other runners at the starting line.

It was warm and drizzly at the start. For some reason I’d decided to wear an old, raggedy RunHappy tank and my fave compression shorts that only really look decent with a loose, lightweight, racerback tank. So please don’t judge my race-day attire I was not thinking.

Before we knew it, we were off! Now, all three of us ran at about a 10:30 pace for our last marathon, and were pretty used to training at around an 11-minute pace while chatting all last season. But we’d strategized that we’d push ourselves to hold a 9-minute/mile pace in the hopes of getting a sub-2 time. So we took off and logged a 8:45 for the first mile.

The pace was hard, but not THAT hard. We stuck together and stayed positive the whole time. We didn’t chat much, as we all have our respective pump-up playlists and it was a hilly, challenging course with lots of beautiful scenery to take in. But we did stay together the whole time, which helped us all push ourselves throughout the whole race.

That said, there were some moments where I was pretty bummed out about how grossly humid it was…

But we got through it! And as soon as we were sone, we realized that we’d all PR’d by 3+ minutes!

My previous PR (1:58) had been built on too much hard running and not enough calories. This one was built on positivity and self-love. And so it was time to celebrate!

With LITERALLY THE BEST Post race food spread I have ever, ever seen! Lord in heaven, there was all the food. Seltzers in every flavor, chocolate milk, chips, ice cream, Pizza for the non-gluten free, protein bars for the gluten-free-folks, and also beer if you’re into that kind of thing. We feasted, people. FEASTED!

This race was a total blast from start to finish. Great location, very organized, plenty of water tables, a great course, and a GREAT after party. I can’t wait to do this one again!